JOSEPH BIENAIMé CAVENTOU

'Joseph Bienaimé Caventou' (1795–1877) was a French chemist.
He was a professor at the École de Pharmacie (School of Pharmacy) in Paris. He collaborated with Pierre-Joseph Pelletier in a Parisian laboratory located behind an apothecary. He was a pioneer in the use of mild solvents to isolate a number of active ingredients from plants, making a study of alkaloids from vegetables. Among their successes were the isolation of the following compounds:

Year	Isolated compound(s)	Source
1817	Chlorophyll
1817	Emetine	Ipecacuanha
1818	Strychnine	Nux vomica
1819	Brucine	Nux vomica
1820	Cinchonine and Quinine	Cinchona bark
1821	Caffeine

Quinine sulfate later proved to be an important remedy for the disease malaria. Neither of the partners chose to patent their discovery of this compound, releasing it for everybody to use. In 1823 they discovered nitrogen in alkaloid compounds. Other compounds they discovered include Colchicine and Veratrine.
Caventou crater on the Moon was named after him.

Contents

See also

See also

★ Pharmacy

★ Pharmacist

★ School of Pharmacy